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You would think that The Wild Bunch might be my kind of Western. Of all the genres of film we’ve looked at in the classic movie reviews over the years, this is the genre that has eluded me most in terms of enjoyment. While I was a big fan of Stagecoach, relative to other films of the genre, it’s been pretty much the same story each time I watch an older Western. I can admire what it’s doing, and I can be impressed by certain elements, but something about the black-and-white, good-vs.-evil dichotomy in almost every story turns me off or doesn’t involve me in any way. (And yet, one of my all-time favorite TV shows is Lost, which absolutely features such a dichotomy. Go figure.) So, The Wild Bunch, which actively subverts Western conventions, should be right up my alley.

To some extent, it is. I admired — there’s that word again — the pensive nature of the protagonists and antagonist. Pike (William Holden) is...well, he’s not really a good person, but in this movie, if you are rooting for anyone, you are rooting for Pike. He’s done some horrible things in the past, and continues to do so, but with a heavy heart. He and the titular crew of the story are being chased down by a posse formed by the railroad company, who want to take the wild bunch to task for their various robberies. The posse of bounty hunters is headed by Deke (I know it’s petty, but the names are ridiculous, right?), who used to be Pike’s old partner. The tables have turned a bit, but Deke doesn’t much relish working for the railroad company, as he’s surrounded by lowbrow fools and money-grubbing superiors.

The Wild Bunch has a brain, and does use it some of the time. The film is certainly grittier and tougher than most American Westerns, though if you’ve seen any of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns, the toughness isn’t that surprising. (Yeah, I’ve seen the Man with No Name trilogy, and I’d put The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly over just about every American Western I’ve seen, no question.) What doesn’t work for me is what anyone who’s heard of The Wild Bunch but hasn’t seen it thinks of: the violence. If you haven’t seen The Wild Bunch and know nothing about it, know this: the film, directed by Sam Peckinpah, is well known for its intentionally gratuitous violence. When characters die in this movie, you know it.

Remember how, in The Dark Knight, the various characters who get killed onscreen are offed in notably bloodless ways? Even the magic trick scene with the Joker is clearly not bloody. Christopher Nolan acknowledged that this was intentional; even though the film is dark for a PG-13 rating, he didn’t want to deter kids hovering around age 13 from seeing it, so there’s no blood in the film. The Wild Bunch is the diametrical opposite of The Dark Knight in terms of gore. There are plenty of horror movies with more blood and guts, but most action movies aren’t nearly as graphic. Characters get shot in The Wild Bunch — a lot of characters — and when they do, we see blood explode from their bodies. What’s more, many characters who get shot, at least in the first action sequence, are innocent bystanders.

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